White Orchids

“Hey hon? Have you seen Bella?”

Zach looked up from his laptop for a brief second before returning his eyes to the screen. Lisa sighed. A part of her missed the days when they were broke; at least he paid attention to her.

“She wasn’t in her room, and I can’t find her anywhere else. Did she come in here?”

“Nope. Did you check the guest room?”

“Why would she – you don’t think? Shit. Nicki’s going to kill me.”

Lisa left their room without another word. She crept down the hallway towards the guest room. It was nearly eight; she was surprised Nicki hadn’t already woken up. She wondered what time they came back last night. She’d gone to bed at nine and passed out the second her head hit the pillows.

She braced herself for what she might find when she opened the door. Hopefully, Bella was in there. And hopefully, if she wasn’t, Nicki and Tyler would be clothed. Well, if Tyler wasn’t maybe it would be okay. Lisa turned the doorknob and pushed gently, praying that the door wouldn’t squeak and wake them up.

Nothing could have prepared her for what she found. She brought a hand up to her mouth and shook her head. Lisa was having a hard time figuring out which one of them was more adorable. Naturally, she should be inclined to think her daughter was the cutest. But the look on Tyler’s sleeping face took the cake. He must have fallen asleep wearing that stupid grin.

Lisa pulled her phone out of her pocket to take a picture. She felt a little creepy, taking a picture of them sleeping. But it was something she wanted to remember for the rest of her life. She knew that someday, when they were all old and decrepit, it would make them smile and reminisce of the good times in their lives.

For a second, she thought she woke someone up. She held her breath and remained still before noticing that it was just Bella stirring, curling up closer to Tyler. Lisa saw her teddy bear lying on the ground. She almost didn’t believe it. Bella could never fall asleep without her bear.

After a while, she began to feel as though she was imposing on their privacy and snuck out of the room, heading back to her bedroom. Zach still had his eyes glued to his laptop, typing away. Lisa sat down at their makeshift desk and grabbed her iPad to scroll through the Yahoo! News stories for the day.

“Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me.”

** * * * *

A big, wet kiss on Tyler’s cheek snapped him out of his slumber. While he was still gaining consciousness, he thought it had been Marshall. But a squeaky giggle in his ear reminded him that he and Nicki weren’t the only ones in bed that morning. He yawned, and Bella stuck a finger in his mouth to disrupt it, so he pretended to bite her.

“Uncle Tyler!” she shrieked, pulling her hand away and wiping it on him. “You almost ate my finger!”

“Well you shouldn’t be sticking your fingers in other people’s mouths,” he said, grabbing her and tickling her.

Her screeching echoed off the walls. Tyler imagined anyone who had been asleep was now awake. Beside him, Nicki sat up and stretched.

“Sorry we woke you up.”

Bella jumped on him and started to bounce up and down on his stomach. How was she so hyper already?

“Don’t worry about it. Bella, sweetie, how’d you sleep?”

“Good Auntie! Really good!”

Tyler laughed and looked over at Nicki. At some point today, he was going to have to push their relationship further than either of them ever had, and he was as nervous as anything. How do you just bring that up in conversation?

A knock on the door captured everyone’s attention. The door swung open and Lisa stepped into the room. The expression on her face confused Tyler. He worried it might have something to do with him having slept half naked next to her four year old daughter.

“Bella, what are you doing in here?” she asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed by Nicki.

Bella ran over to her mother and wrapped her arms around her neck.

“I had a bad dream so Auntie and Uncle let me sleep wiff them.”

“That was awfully nice of them, wasn’t it?”

“Uh huh! Real nice!”

Lisa smiled and kissed her forehead. “Aren’t you going to say thank you?”

Bella nodded her head and climbed onto Nicki to hug her. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, honey. Next time, you don’t have to ask okay? You can come in here whenever you want.”

“Really?!”

She nodded. “Really. Just knock first, okay?”

“Uh huh!” she said as she jumped across the bed and onto Tyler.

She gave him another sloppy kiss on the cheek and said, “Thanks Uncle. You’re really comfy.”

Tyler started to laugh. That was usually the first thing Nicki said to him every morning.

“You’re welcome, Bells. I hope I made you feel better.”

“You did!” she said, taking a seat on his stomach again.

“Bella, honey, want to help mommy and daddy make breakfast?” Lisa asked.

She sprang off of Tyler and back to her mother. Watching her go back and forth was exhausting him.

“Yeah! What are we making?!”

“I don’t know, let’s go find out,” said Lisa, gathering Bella in her arms and standing up. Before she left, she turned and mouthed I’ll be right back.

The second she walked out of the door, Tyler grabbed Nicki and pulled her to him. She settled right into his arms and made a soft noise.

“I missed this,” she said, pressing herself closer to him.

He chuckled and left a kiss on the back of her head. “I know. What are we gonna do when we – “

God damn it.

“When we what?”

“Forget it,” he mumbled, moving his lips to kiss her neck. Maybe it would make her forget, at least for a little. “Did you sleep okay?”

“Yeah, actually, I slept fine.”

“Me too,” he said, still half lost in thought.

Only minutes passed before Lisa came back. They sat up and straightened themselves out. Lisa closed the door behind her, and had her iPad in hand.

“Guys, I’m so sorry about Bella. You should have woken me up, I would have taken her in our room.”

“No, Lis, I wouldn’t do that. She was fine, honestly. She came in upset over a bad dream and we got her to tell Ty about it and then she went right to sleep. We really didn’t mind,” Nicki said. The sincerity in her voice was plain, she truly didn’t mind it.

Lisa sat down again on the edge of the bed. “Jesus, I wish I could have made you Danny’s godparents too. You guys are the greatest. She really, really loves you.” She paused to laugh. “Maybe even more than she loves Zach and me.”

“Lisa stop it! That’s not true. If we were her parents and you were her godparents, it would be the same way. It’s just because she never gets to see us.”

She sighed. “I know. I actually wanted to run something by you…”

“Shoot.”

“Since you got here I’ve been thinking a lot, and I mean obviously I miss seeing my best friend. But I got to grow up with you, you know? Bells, she really won’t get the same opportunity, and it kills me, it really does. I was just thinking, maybe, if it’s okay with you, when she gets a little older I could send her out to Boston for a few weeks over the summers. Just so she can spend some time with you.”

Tyler wanted to answer her, but he looked at Nicki first.

“What do you think, Ty? It’s your time off.”

He smiled, pleased that she didn’t make the decision on her own. Not like it would have bothered him if she did, anyways.

“I think that’d be great. I’d love to see her more.”

“I figured you might,” Lisa said, grinning. “I can’t wait to see the expression on her face when I tell her.”

“If you want, one or both of us could come out to get her, so she wouldn’t have to be on the plane alone,” Nicki offered.

“Yeah,” Tyler added, “Then you wouldn’t have to wait until she’s older. She could come when she gets out of preschool this summer, if you wanted her to.”

“Have I ever told you guys how much I love you?”

Nicki laughed. “We love you too, Lis.”

Lisa smiled at them hesitantly, like there was something else she wanted to say, but wasn’t quite sure how to say it.

“What is it?” Tyler asked, trying to get it out of her.

“Are you in a good mood right now? Scale of one to ten, ten being fantastic.”

“I’d say I’m a ten,” Nicki said, thinking it over.

“I’ll be a ten once I eat,” said Tyler, earning a few giggles from Nicki.

“Good. Promise me that when I show you this you won’t freak out?”

He shot Nicki a look. Whenever people said that to them, it never turned out well. They both nodded and shrugged their shoulders. How bad could it be?

Lisa took a breath and showed them her iPad. At first, it just looked like an article. Then Tyler saw his name. And the picture. And the title that read “Hockey Star Keeps Illegitimate Child A Secret”. Beside him, Nicki burst into a fit of laughter. He couldn’t help but join her.

“That made news?!” Nicki asked, between laughs. “My God, what has this world come to?! Let’s read it,” she said eagerly.

She took the iPad from Lisa and held it between them so they could read. Nicki read much too fast for him, so he just skimmed and figured he would let her give him the summary once she finished.

When she looked up she asked Lisa, “Did you read it?”

“Uh huh. I can’t believe you aren’t mad. I’d be furious. I am furious, actually. Imagine the aftermath Bella’s going to have to deal with, being the illegitimate – “ Lisa couldn’t finish her sentence. She’d broken out into hysterics as well. Once she wiped the tears from her eyes she said, “That is some of the worst reporting I’ve ever seen.”

“What does the article say?” Tyler asked, becoming more curious.

“Um, it says that Bella is six years old, which means you had her when you first started in the NHL. A ‘credible source’ tells them that you aren’t paying child support. And, arguably my favorite part, the girl in the picture with you, isn’t me. I’m back in Boston, waiting for you to come home from your last road trip. I have no idea that you have a child in Michigan. Yahoo! just ruined our relationship.”

Tyler took the iPad from her in disbelief. He’d had his fair share of wordplay from the media, showing clips of him saying things out of context, merging different clips together, etcetera. He was familiar with that. But making up an entire story?

He laughed again when he looked at the picture of the two of them holding hands with Bella in the parking lot. Anyone who knew Nicki would know instantly that it was her. To make matters worse, there was another picture, of Nicki from the night at the ball. He stared at it a little too long; he’d almost forgotten how amazing she looked. Even though she looked different in the two pictures, it was clearly the same person.

“You have to read the comments,” Lisa said, noting that he was scrolling down the screen.

Tyler repeated some of them for the girls.

“’Scumbag. All those hockey players are the same’, Michelle. ‘My friend knows someone who knows him and she says that it isn’t his only child’, Hannah. ‘I feel so bad for his fiancé. No girl deserves that’, Beth. ‘His fiancé is obviously in it for the money if she deals with all of his bullshit’, Vicky. ‘Do you women have eyeballs? That child is clearly not six years old and that’s clearly his fiancé in the picture. Bravo, Yahoo!, you’ve done it again’, Tim.”

“We live in a world full of idiots,” Lisa said, shaking her head.

Nicki’s phone starting to vibrate on the bedside table. Tyler picked it up and handed it to her.

“It’s my mom,” he warned. If he had to guess what she was calling about, he’d say she saw the article, too.

“Hello?”

“Hi Jackie. Yeah, we’re looking at it right now.”

“Yup. I gave him the ring back and everything,” she said, smirking at Tyler.

“Sorry. The wedding’s off, Jackie. I’m not going to stoop that low. He couldn’t even tell me he had a child with my best friend two years before they even met? He’s an asshole.”

Tyler chuckled. His phone began to vibrate on the table. He grabbed it and went to the corner of the room so his and Nicki’s conversations wouldn’t get tangled. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Lisa staring at him. He was so used to walking around in his underwear, sometimes it didn’t hit him until after it was too late that not everybody was comfortable with it.

“Hey coach. What’s up?”

“Seguin, I assume you’ve seen the latest bullshit going around about you.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I just did.”

“I’m glad you find it funny. Jacobs and Neely are not in such good humor. When you get back here, we’re setting up a press conference to sort this out. I know you didn’t do anything wrong, Segs, but it gives you a bad name to those people stupid enough to believe it. In turn, it gives the entire Bruins organization a bad name. We can’t have that.”

“I understand, coach. I’m coming back on Wednesday, I can do it whenever you want.”

“Good, good. I’ll send you a text with the time, place, and date. And if you could get Nicki to come with you, it would help us out a lot. The female fan base loves her. I’m sure she’ll be able to quiet any skeptics.”

“She’ll be there,” he assured.

“I’ll be in touch,” said Claude before hanging up.

He turned around to see if Nicki was still on the phone with his mother. Shockingly, she wasn’t. Her and Lisa were whispering and giggling over something. Tyler cleared his throat and they snapped their heads towards him.

“Who was that, babe?”

Tyler sighed and sat down next to her on the bed. “Claude. I have to do a press conference when we get back. He asked if you’d come. Do you mind?”

“They want me to do a press conference with you?”

He nodded. A worried look crossed her face.

“I hope they don’t ask me a lot of questions.”

Tyler put an arm around her. He felt horrible that she always had to deal with the backlash of his fame. Even after the countless interviews they’d done together, she’d never gotten comfortable around the cameras and crowds.

“They might,” he said, knowing that being brutally honest with her was better than letting her think she wouldn’t be bombarded with questions about her personal life. “I’m so sorry.”

Nicki leaned into him and let her head fall to his shoulder. “It’s not your fault.”

He heard a scoff come from Lisa. “Do you two ever fight?”

Tyler left a kiss on the top of her head. He’d let her answer that one.

“You know I don’t fight, Lis.”

“But don’t you get pissed at each other?” she asked, in disbelief.

“Not really,” Tyler said flatly.

“I don’t understand. God, there are some days when I want to rip Zach’s head off with my bare hands,” she said, face becoming flushed.

Tyler felt sorry for her. He’d only been there a day, but he noticed right away that Zach had changed. He didn’t even spare Lisa a passing glance. For God’s sake, she was the mother of his child. She cooked and cleaned all day and took care of two kids, and it was like Zach could have cared less.

“Do you want me to talk to him, Lisa?” he offered. A part of him really wanted to.

“About what?”

Nicki looked up at him, waiting for his answer. “The way he treats you. Even I noticed. It’s not right. He doesn’t appreciate you at all.”

Lisa’s eyes began to gloss over and he watched as she ran a finger along the rim of her eye.

“You’d really do that?” she asked, choked up.

He nodded and forced a smile. “Course. I think we’re on good enough terms that he wouldn’t be insulted.”

“I don’t know how to thank you,” she said, tears spilling over now.

In the four years Tyler had known her, the only times he’d ever seen her cry was when her kids were born. It just showed him how much it was hurting her.

“You don’t have to. I owe you more than I’ll ever be able to give back.” He pulled Nicki a little closer to him. “When’s the best time to do it?”

Lisa wiped her face with the back of her hands and sniffled. “Probably tomorrow morning. Unless we end up fighting tonight. Are you two still up for babysitting? We’ll most likely go out around five and won’t be back until late.”

“Of course we are. Who knows, maybe it’ll be a wakeup call for Zach and Tyler won’t even have to talk to him,” Nicki suggested hopefully.

“Eh, maybe. Hey, what did you two end up doing last night? How was the restaurant?”

They looked at each other and grinned, not sure if they should tell her.

“Okay… maybe I don’t want to know.”

Nicki pulled her eyes away from Tyler and laughed. “We didn’t go to the restaurant.”

“So where the hell did you go? There isn’t anything to do for miles.”

Tyler started to chuckle when he thought of the outrageous things they had done the night before. How the idea hadn’t raised a red flag in his subconscious was a mystery. But it ended up being much better than any dinner date.

“We went skinny dipping in Lake Huron,” he blurted out, unable to hold it in any longer. “And it was amazing. And I think that maybe you and Zach try it, too.”

Lisa closed her eyes and rubbed her temples with her pointer and middle fingers. “I’m sorry, you did what? And you want me to do what?”

“Lighten up Lisa,” Nicki said, giggling. “Before you had Bells, you would have been so down for that. Just because you have kids doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. Forget you have ‘em for the night, if you want. I’m telling you, it was great.” She slung her arm around Tyler’s back. “It was really romantic. But fun. We’ll even give you the towels we used, they were perfect for it.”

She stared blankly at the wall for a moment before saying, “That doesn’t sound half bad. But I’ll pass on the towels. Lord knows what happened on them.”

“Lisa! Nothing happened on them. I’ll even wash them for you before tonight if you want. Please, go. It will be good for both of you.”

“Maybe you’re right. Promise you didn’t have sex on the towels?”

Nicki giggled. “Promise.”

** * * * *

“So what do you want to do today, Bells?”

Lisa and Zach ended up leaving shortly after two in the afternoon. He said he was surprising her with something, but wouldn’t tell any of them what it was. Nicki had her fingers crossed that he had come around. The coldness he was showing towards Lisa since she’d gotten there just wasn’t like him; he’d always been more in love with her than she’d been with him. She desperately hoped it was just a speed bump in their relationship and not something larger.

“I wanna cook! Can we cook?!” she asked, spinning herself around in circles on the kitchen floor.

Nicki sat down with her and grabbed her to stop her from spinning. She didn’t want to be mopping puke off of the floor the entire afternoon.

“What do you want to cook?”

“Cookies,” she said, with the most serious expression Nicki had ever seen cross the girl’s face.

She heard Tyler laughing above them. He was seated at the island, resting. He’d been playing with Bella all morning, and she managed to tucker him out worse than Claude ever could.

“Okay, we’ll make cookies. Uncle Tyler loves my cookies, doesn’t he?” she asked, thankful that Bella was too young to pick up on the flirtatious undertone to her voice.

He groaned. “Yes he does.”

It was Nicki’s turn to laugh. A couple years back, she’d made a batch of cookies for his team for one of their games. She went grocery shopping and came back to a very bloated Freddy and Tyler sprawled across the couch and a very empty box of cookies. They ate every last one, in no more than an hour.

“Do you know if you have chocolate chips, sweetie?”

“Yah we got chocolate chips! They’re right in here!” she said, running over to one of the cabinets.

She ran too fast for her stubby legs to handle and fell, skidding across the floor. The wailing started instantly. This was the one thing that Nicki had always been afraid of. She raced over to Bella and Tyler nearly fell himself scrambling off of the chair. Nicki looked her over. The only damage seemed to be a floor burn on her knee.

“Bella, honey, where does it hurt?” she asked, praying to God she hadn’t hurt anything else.

She continued to cry and pointed to the knee with the floor burn. It was then that she realized she had no idea where Lisa’s first aid kit was, or if they even had one.

“Where does mommy keep the bandaids?” she asked, with the hope that somehow she would know.

“Baffroom.”

“Upstairs?”

She nodded.

“Ty, can you go find them? And some disinfectant?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right back,” he said, getting up and running out of the room.

Bella’s crying finally ceased and Nicki pulled her onto her lap and wrapped her arms around her miniature torso.

“You’re gonna be okay, Bells. It’s just a little scrape,” she said, planting a kiss on the top of her head.

Tyler came back what felt like only seconds later with a box of bandaids and a familiar white and green bottle. She didn’t remember what it was called, but she remembered her parents using it on her when she was little.

He knelt down in front of them and held the spray bottle above her knee.

“This might sting a little, okay?”

Bella nodded and Nicki felt her muscles tense, she imagined that she was squeezing her eyes shut as well, bracing herself for the pain. The spray hit her skin and she didn’t flinch.

“That didn’t hurt at all,” she said. Nicki could hear the pride in her voice.

“You’re really tough, huh?” Tyler asked as he put a large bandaid over her knee.

“Yeah!” she said, springing up from Nicki’s lap, good as new. “Just like you! And LOOCH!”

They both laughed, letting the relief take over. There was something about watching little kids get hurt that made Nicki nauseous. You just never knew if they were going to be okay.

“Still want to make cookies?” she asked, expecting her answer to be yes.

“Uh huh! Teach me how!”

Nicki smiled as Tyler lifted her up and put her on one of the chairs so that she would be able to reach the island.

Before he took his hands away he said, “Be careful, okay? No falling.”

Bella agreed eagerly and did her best to stay perfectly still. Whatever Tyler had over her, it was a blessing. Nicki sifted through the cabinets in Lisa’s kitchen, and eventually found everything she needed.

“K, Bella. The first thing you want to do when you make anything is get all of the stuff you need and put it in front of you. Can you remember that?”

“Get all the stuff first!” she repeated.

Nicki didn’t bother telling her what it was called, knowing full well that she would butcher it and never find out the correct way to say it. She’d wait until she was older to tell her about mise en place. As they worked, Bella fired off question after question. Why was the sky blue? How does Santa fit through the chimney? What if you don’t have a chimney? Is there really a man on the moon? Some she answered, some Tyler answered.

Finally, as they put the last sheet of cookies into the oven to bake, Danny started to stir. He had to be the quietest baby ever. For the last two hours, he had been sitting in his high chair, doing nothing but playing with the cheerios Nicki had given him after Lisa and Zach left. And he was a beautiful baby. He’d inherited his father’s ice blue eyes and his mother’s dark brown hair, but had a pudgy face and cheeks that were always rosy. For a moment, she entertained the thought of what she and Tyler’s baby might look like; whose facial structure it would get, whose nose, whose ears. It left her with a funny feeling in her gut.

Before she could even ask, Tyler was out of his seat trying to figure out what Danny wanted.

“I dunno what he wants,” he said, “I don’t get babies.”

Nicki laughed and lifted Danny out of the high chair to sniff his diaper.

When she put him back in she said, “He’s probably just hungry. If he needed to be changed, he’d be crying.” She glanced at the clock. It was nearly five. “I think we can feed him now. Do you mind? I have to clean up.”

He looked nervously from her to Danny. “Uh, I guess.”

Nicki opened the fridge and pulled out a small Tupperware container, handing it to Tyler.

“Lisa made this before they left. I think it’s like, banana and yogurt or something.”

He took it from her, but placed it on the island in front of him. “Can you do it? I’ll clean.”

“You don’t want to?” she asked, surprised.

“No, it’s not that. I just have no idea what to do. I mean, he’s so little. I feel like I’m gonna hurt him.”

Ah, mystery solved. Like most guys, he had a fear of babies.

“Aw, Ty, he’ll be fine.”

Tyler shrugged, and Nicki grabbed one of Danny’s spoons from the silverware drawer. She wasn’t about to make him do something he didn’t want to. After taking the cover off of the container, she spooned a little bit into Danny’s tiny mouth, laughing as he started to giggle while he ate, causing half of what was in his mouth to fall out.

Next to her, Tyler was cracking up. “Why is he doing that?!”

“I don’t know,” she said, trying not to completely lose it. “Lisa warned me he was weird when he ate, but I guess I never actually watched before.”

That explained why there seemed to be twice the amount of food that a baby needed in the Tupperware. Because half of it ended up on his shirt. She continued the painstaking process, trying to keep her hand steady while she laughed.

“He’s so cute,” Tyler mumbled.

Nicki turned her head to look at him.

“What?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I’ve just never heard you call anything cute. Well, besides me. And Bella.”

“So?”

She shrugged and turned back to Danny. Something about it tugged at her heart strings.

“Can you take the cookies out? They should be done.”

“Yup.”

“Auntie when can I eat the cookies?! I want one now!” Bella screeched from the floor, where she sat playing with her new Barbies.

“You haven’t even eaten dinner yet, Bells. Are you hungry?”

“Staaarrvvvinnngggg.”

Nicki heard the cling of metal against granite as Tyler set the cookie tray on the counter.

“What do you want to eat?” he asked.

Finally, Nicki finished attempting to get Danny to eat. She took his pudgy arms out of his shirt and pulled it over his head. It was covered in the mush she’d just fed him.

“Grilled cheese!”

Nicki grinned and, after wiping Danny clean, knelt down beside Bella.

“Do you know whose favorite food ever is grilled cheese?”

“It’s my favorite food ever!” she screamed, pointing a thumb to her chest.

“It’s my favorite too, Bells,” Tyler said, chuckling.

“NUH UH!”

“Looks like I’ll be making two of them,” Nicki inferred, brushing a hand over Bella’s hair before standing up.

“Or three,” said Tyler with a smirk.

** * * *

Finally, an hour later, Nicki had everyone fed and the kitchen cleaned up. She had no idea how Lisa did it every day; she was about to collapse. A comforting arm slipped across her back, and she allowed Tyler to support some of her weight.

“You look exhausted.”

“I am. I’m convinced Lisa is a superhero. I’m convinced every mother is a superhero.”

A pair of soft lips pressed against her temple, making her momentarily forget everything going on around her. That is, until an anxious hand began to pull at her pant leg.

“Auntie, can we watch a movie? Mommy and Daddy always watch one wiff me on Saturday but they not here.”

“That sounds great, Bella. Why don’t you go pick one out? We’ll be right there,” she said, delighted at the thought of spending an hour or so reclining on the couch.

As soon as Bella was out of sight, Tyler snuck in a short, sweet kiss.

“Want me to make some popcorn, babe? You haven’t eaten all day,” he said, leaving his hands on her hips.

“No thanks. I’ll eat something once we put them to bed.”

“What do we do with Danny?” he asked, nodding towards the high chair. His head was drooped down over his chest, but every few seconds he would pick it up and open his eyes before letting it fall again.

Nicki giggled at the sight. He wasn’t very energetic, but he was an entertaining baby, for sure.

“Lis told me to let him fall asleep before we put him in the crib, or else he won’t sleep through the night.”

He let out a long breath. “How do you remember all of this stuff?”

“I guess I just kinda have to.”

Tyler’s hands moved slowly up to hold her face. The look in his eyes nearly knocked the wind out of her.

“What are you guys doin’?”

Before he backed away, a small smile crept onto Tyler’s face, leaving Nicki to ponder what that whole thing was about.

“Did you pick a movie?” he asked, leaving her side to pick up Bella. She sat on his arm like she would a swing.

“Uh huh!”

“Which one?”

“Nemo!”

Tyler laughed and gave her a kiss on the nose, nearly bringing Nicki to tears.

“Auntie loves that movie,” he said, bringing her into the living room.

Nicki picked up the half asleep Danny out of his high chair. He wasn’t a big baby, but he was a heavy one. He’d grown monumentally over the last year. He yawned and stretched in her arms, and one of his chubby little fingers reached up to touch her face; it was that moment when she fell absolutely in love with him.

She brought him into the living room where Bella was already sitting on the couch, and Tyler was bent over in front of the TV, trying to set up the movie. Once the title menu popped onto the screen, he grabbed the remote and went to join them on the couch.

“Ty, why don’t you hold Danny,” she suggested.

He slumped into the couch. “I don’t know how.”

“You’ve never held a baby?”

“Nope.”

“I thought you held Bella when she was born?!”

Tyler shook his head.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. Here, hold out your arms,” she said, repositioning herself so she could safely hand Danny over.

“Loosen up,” she said, referring to his stiff posture. “He’s not gonna bite. And use your arm to hold up his head…” She adjusted his arm. “Yeah. Like that.”

As Danny moved around in his arms, Tyler finally began to relax.

“Wow,” he whispered, staring down at him.

Nicki smiled. She remembered the first time she held a baby. It’s life changing.

“I can’t believe he’s gonna grow up to be like, a person.”

“I know,” she said, giggling. “It’s so weird.”

“Are we gonna watch the movie?” Bella asked impatiently.

Caught up in her moment with Danny and Tyler, she’d completely forgotten about Bella. She grabbed the remote from Tyler’s lap and hit play. Bella jumped off of the couch, only to climb onto Nicki’s lap. She settled in and Nicki wrapped her arms around her, resting her chin on her head. Out of the corner of her eye she glanced at Tyler, who was still awestruck with Danny.

She tried to watch the movie but for the life of her couldn’t concentrate. All she could think of was how comfortable she felt. Not just being on the couch, but with the entire situation. The whole day she’d felt perfectly at ease. Sure, she was drained. But she never once felt overwhelmed or incapable.

Soft snoring caught Nicki’s attention, and she looked to her right. Tyler was smiling down at Danny, who’d fallen asleep in his arms. Only after a second glance did she realize that Danny was holding one of Tyler’s fingers between his tiny hands. She couldn’t prevent the tear that rolled down her cheek. Tyler had never looked so happy.

“Tyler, I – “

He shushed her and looked down at Bella.

Is she asleep?

He nodded.

“We should get them to bed,” she whispered. Unless her eyes deceived her, Tyler seemed disappointed.

Nicki tried to get off of the couch without waking Bella, to no avail. She lifted her eyelids just enough to see. When she figured out she was being taken to bed, she wrapped her arms around Nicki’s neck and hung her head over her shoulder. Tyler followed her upstairs, a few paces behind so that he wouldn’t alarm Danny.

She got Bella into bed and tucked her in. This time, she didn’t ask for a lullaby. She rolled over and went right to sleep.

“Sweet dreams, Bells.”

When she walked out of the room, Tyler was waiting for her with a smile on his face. She led him silently down the hall to Danny’s nursery, turning on the soft night light instead of the harsh ceiling light. Nicki watched as Tyler set him down in his crib and covered him with his baby blanket. For the first time, she felt ready to talk to him. About everything.

Before they left the room, Nicki grabbed the baby monitor from a shelf on the wall, in case Danny started to cry. She hadn’t changed him in hours, and only assumed that she would need to at some point during the night.

“What now?” Tyler asked, falling back onto the couch.

“Wanna watch another movie? It’s not even nine. They won’t be home for hours.”

“Sure. You pick. I don’t care.”

She knelt in front of the entertainment center; Lisa and Zach had their movies organized in a similar fashion as they did back home. Hoping Tyler might catch on to what she was hinting at, she picked another children’s movie. One of her personal favorites. She put the DVD into the player and sat next to Tyler, reclining back against his chest. His arms found their way around her waist and pulled her closer to him. Just as she was about to bring it up, he spoke.

“Rugrats in Paris?”

Nicki giggled. “I figured we could stick with the theme. Please? It was one of my favorites when I was little. It always makes me cry.”

“You cry over Rugrats in Paris,” he scoffed. It wasn’t a question.

Before she could retort, wailing came through the monitor next to them. Unwillingly, Nicki pushed herself off of the couch.

“What’s wrong with him? He was fine two seconds ago.”

“He probably needs to be changed,” she said, sighing.

Tyler hesitated. “Can I come?”

“You want to come with me?”

“Well… I should learn sometime. Right?”

She shrugged. Suddenly, she was feeling anxious. They went back upstairs to the nursery and Nicki pulled Danny from his crib, knowing from the added weight that he needed to be changed. She prayed for pee. It was going to take time getting used to the alternative.

Nicki felt Tyler watching over her shoulder as she laid Danny out on the changing table and unstrapped his diaper. Pee. Thank God. She tossed it in the trash below her and asked Tyler to hand her a fresh diaper.

“How do you know what to do?” he asked, plainly intrigued by the entire thing.

As she fastened the straps on the new diaper she said, “I’m a woman. We just know these things.”

Danny was nearly asleep again by the time she put him back in his crib. Lisa’s kids were going to spoil all of the rest of them for her. With Nicki’s luck, she’d end up with a bunch of brats.

At last, she could finally relax for the night. Back on the couch, she was already dozing off. But there was an elephant in the room, and both of them knew it. Nicki straightened up and shifted so that she was facing Tyler. She wanted to be able to see his expressions, to read them.

He noticed her change of position and looked at her. It was the first time in years that she was having trouble saying what she needed to say to him.

“Ty, - “

“I want to have kids with you,” he blurted out.

It was the first time he’d ever said it out loud, and frankly, it shocked her. Nicki stared at him as she got her bearings, trying to find the words to say.

“I do, too.” Was that the best she could come up with?

Tyler shook his head. “I want to… now. I don’t want to wait any more.”

“Now?”

For the second time that night, he held her face in his hands, making her meet his gaze. She could tell that he was dead serious.

“Nicki, I wasn’t ready for a relationship when I told you I wanted to be with you. I wasn’t ready to get married when I asked you to marry me. Hell, I wasn’t ready to start my career when I got drafted. But I’m telling you, I’m ready for this. I’m more than ready… It’s all I can think about lately. I see my teammates all having kids, and it’s great. And I’m happy for them. These last couple of days, though, made up my mind. I mean, fucking look at us. Look at everything we did today and tell me we aren’t ready to be parents.”

Only when she felt the tears falling onto her chest did Nicki notice that she was crying.

“I can’t. I think you’re right. You’re really ready for this?”

“More than I could ever tell you,” he whispered, making butterflies swarm in her stomach.

“Okay,” she said, laughing and wiping away the tears. “Okay. We’ll try.”

Tyler pulled her close and squeezed her so hard that she could barely breathe. She felt a hot tear on her neck.

“I love you, so much more than you’ll ever know.”

“I think you just showed me.”